"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

The same way that Christopher Marlowe wrote Shakespeare's plays after he was dead, I suppose.

You don't expect the people who come up with these theories to be reasonable do you?

Anyway, I'm sure that Branwell's adherents will be happy to let his sisters take credit for Villette and Shirley if he can have the more famous two. (Although if I were one of his posse, I'd hold out for The Tenant of Wildfield Hall, too.)
 
Ah, but since Marlowe had been a spy for Walsingham against the Dutch, it seems plausible for him to have faked his own death. And so he wrote the plays under the pseudonym of his good friend Bill.

On the other hand, some people believe Shakespeare was an Arab called Sheikh Zubair, and that Othello is autobiographical...
 
Tirellan,

Or more possibly a lot of them recognised it and thought 'I'm not prepared to play silly buggers with whoever sent this in' and sent it back.
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I have to say I rather doubt it. My guess is that no-one spotting the hoax would even have gone to the admittedly rather modest trouble of sending back even a standard form rejection slip. They'd just have shoved the whole lot in the bin. Or perhaps sent it back in the prepaid envelope with "nice try" scrawled over the front page. No-one likes to look stupid, so they'd want the hoaxer to know it hadn't worked, surely?

Teresa,

I certainly helped my sisters with the concept of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but when it comes to a choice between sitting up at the parsonage, scratching the whole lot out by hand in sub-zero temperatures whilst family members are dropping like flies all around or sitting in the warm, convivial surroundings of the Black Bull getting hammered on Tim Taylor's Landlord and dicing with your cronies - well, mine's a pint..........

I did write Hamlet, Othello and Two Gentlemen of Verona, though...

Branwell
 
Peter Graham said:
I have to say I rather doubt it. My guess is that no-one spotting the hoax would even have gone to the admittedly rather modest trouble of sending back even a standard form rejection slip. They'd just have shoved the whole lot in the bin. Or perhaps sent it back in the prepaid envelope with "nice try" scrawled over the front page. No-one likes to look stupid, so they'd want the hoaxer to know it hadn't worked, surely?
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According to the news report I read, at least two publishers returned it and their rejection letters correctly identified it. So it's more likely the others identified it and decided not to pander to some nutter who thought he could pass off a 200-year-old classic as his own work...
 
iansales said:
According to the news report I read, at least two publishers returned it and their rejection letters correctly identified it. So it's more likely the others identified it and decided not to pander to some nutter who thought he could pass off a 200-year-old classic as his own work...
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Yes, Ian, that's how I remember it, with one making rather pointed remarks about perhaps not having a certain book open on the desk when writing next time around...

It was still a good story, though! :)
 
Yeah, the guy was piqued because his own novel, which he characterised as something like 'not wonderful, but perfectly publishable' had been turned down. He wrote his own epitaph. Books like that are turned down every day by UK publishers, who only take on one or two debut novels over a year. Being 'good' is nowhere near good enough, in general terms, for a new novelist in 2008.

His name is also on every editor's desk, so they remember his stupidity should he submit more novels...
 
His name is also on every editor's desk, so they remember his stupidity should he submit more novels...
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Wow ... talk about burning your bridges. I wonder what he actually hoped to achieve by that?

Did he honestly expect every relevant editor/publisher to drop to their knees, and shout: "We were wrong! We can see that now! Please let us publish your book! Please!"

And couldn't he have better spent his time by starting another book of his own ... instead of carrying out pointless experiments that reek of sour grapes?
 
John- Makes sense I suppose. I guess all I can really do is cross my fingers and hope I’ll manage to stumble onto someone who’s crazy enough to represent me. And hope he/she will be able to do the same thing for a publisher. Lol. Why can’t life ever make things easy?


Troo- I wouldn’t mind international fame and a life of luxury. But all I’m looking for is to be traditionally published. I wouldn’t mind dealing with an independent press, but I don’t write for myself, I write for others. I’d like to think of myself as a storyteller, and let’s be perfectly honest here. How many people do you think sit alone by a camp fire and recite ghost stories to themselves? Not many. It’s just not very fun.



To have someone read and love your writing – that is, for me at least, one of the greatest feelings in the world. I write because I have something to say and I want people to hear it.

One of my favorite contemporary :)P) authors, George R. R. Martin, once said something to the extent of, "I like writing when it's going well, but I love having written." And I think the reason it is so gratifying is because people go out and read and enjoy his stories, and he feels like his work means something, like it was all worthwhile.


As for Paulini’s success… If only my parents were publishers… Things would be soooo much easier. Hell, I’m around the same age as he was too! Lol.



Nevertheless, you make a good point.
 
Ah but this pulls us back to the old truism: How can you expect others to love you if you cannot love yourself?

Write for yourself. Love your writing. Then infect others with your love :D
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
Time to remind everyone that this is a family friendly site ...
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Hmmm, I think we were in danger of slipping into Carry-On Film territory there ...

But maybe that's not a bad thing: "Carry-On Chrons" ... It has got a bit of a ring to it. Perhaps we should all collaborate on the script.

Ah, if only Sid James was still around ...
 
I was just trying to point out a fur glove is useful, living up here in the frozen north...he said teeth chattering!!

Anyway John started it:)
 
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